fencing tips for a karateka?

[pkt]

Join the Banos brothers ?

PK

[Christopher J Umbs]

Originally posted by Ky-Fi


But with sport fencing, you don't need to do most of these things---the goal is not to learn to kill your opponent with European weapons. Your goal is to get the touch on your opponent within the confines of the rules and traditions of the sport. Whether or not your sport fencing technique would be lethal in a real fight is largely irrelevant, because that's not what the sport is about, or requires.

Yup... I've been keeping quiet on this one, but if you DO wish to 'learn to kill your opponent with European weapons' instead of sport fencing, I can point you in the right direction.

[Squall_Leonhart]

I've been taking tang soo do (just think of it as the "brother of tae kwon do) and learned fencing later. I will say that the martial arts did help a little bit, but not as much as I had hoped for.
I've been told that more you turn out your trailing foot, the more power you generate than the tradition perpendicular set up. true?
Also, I've been told that as long as you don't get a cramp in your neck, you can turn your torso away from the from so the opponent will have a more diffucult time getting a hit. is this turning body sideways, but keep feet perpendicular idea good? awful? should this task only be given to yoga fanatics who are super duper flexible?

[pkt]

I've tried adopting the kendo feet placement, i.e. the trailing foot is less than 90-degrees to the front foot. The resulting stance is in
1. a more relaxed and more natural position
2. one does not have to worry as much about turning the torso to get into the correct on-guard position.
3. the legs being in a more natural position tend to stay in the leading leg/knee dominant position thereofre stay in the correct knee-and-foot-pointed-at opp position rather than somewhere else which causes sideway torque forces which will damage one's leading knee.
4. The negative one has tp realise is that this causes one to lunge with the toes and balls of the trailing foot rather than the tradional whole foot esp. if one is in the rear foot heel-up position.

All I can say is try it, you might like it. i do.

PK

[Wizardly]

Originally posted by Squall_Leonhart
Also, I've been told that as long as you don't get a cramp in your neck, you can turn your torso away from the from so the opponent will have a more diffucult time getting a hit. is this turning body sideways, but keep feet perpendicular idea good? awful? should this task only be given to yoga fanatics who are super duper flexible?

Turning you torso is generally a bad idea. With your front foot pointed in the line of action, turning your torso will force you front knee inside of your foot. Aside from the odd strains, I'm just guessing, but it doesn't sound too healthy for the joint in the long term. Of course, you can aleviate this strain by moving your front foot, but then your leg will stop your lunge in a direction other than the one in which you're moving. Furthermore, you're spending a lot of energy just keeping your body in profile; a tense front shoulder is a bad thing. A cramp in your neck is the last thign you'll have to worry about; your hips, shoulder, and back will cramp long before your neck does. The chest while in profile is not all that difficult to hit, plus, a great deal of the back becomes much easier to hit.

Really, you want your torso in the neutral position. Your front leg is pointed in the line of action, you back leg is 90° (to the right for righties), your navel should point roughly 45°. You'll be more comfortable, more relaxed, and more ready to think about other things than "twist the torso, pull the shoulders back, turn the head," to say nothing of being more ready to move. You'll only fool the newbies by turning in profile; the trick stops being useful very quickly.

As to your first question, I don't actually know if a foot position larger than 90° will generate more power. I do know that you can make your footwork better simply by making sure your back knee isn't "hanging" inside you back foot.

[MikeHarm]

Whip blocks were similar to beat parries, and the whole block + reverse punch combo always struck me as very similar to the parry riposte idea.

Originally posted by RogueNine
Karate translates quite well to fencing.

For your fencing stance- a backstance is quite close to fencing stance. Just bend your front knee a little bit more and you have a fencing stance.


The main problem in translation is blocking. Blocks dont translate to parries well, its must more natural for me to try to beat the enemy blade.

This is of course, for sabre.

[741]

Originally posted by pkt

4. There are certain things we do in fencing that do not work or disallowed simply because they do not work in the other killing-based sword disciplines. e.g. feints and disengagements.

Is this because real sabres used are far too heavy and slow to do feints with? What about disengagements? Why wouldn't disengagements work with rapiers?

[Ken Mondschein]

Hey--

I have eight to nine years of Japanese karate (I'm a nidan) and about six of classical fencing.

The two are utterly different. Fencing is not about muscle. A fist is a blunt object; a sword is sharp. Chambering, "blocking" thrusts, and using other karate body mechanics will slow you down, work against you, and make you easy to hit. Start from zero, and learn to make the actions slowly, deliberately, and relaxed, as if it's tai chi. Drill relaxed. Think about learning the actions, not trying to beat the other guy. And don't even think about bouting for six months.

[Ken Mondschein]

Originally posted by 741
Is this because real sabres used are far too heavy and slow to do feints with? What about disengagements? Why wouldn't disengagements work with rapiers?

Feints are a part of dueling saber, and were known with the rapier, though many masters advised against it. There are also disengagements with both the saber and the rapier.